17th April - 15th May 2017

The last few weeks in Perth went very quick! Some days felt pretty long for me as I was just at home while Nath was working. It got a little lonely sometimes! I went for walks around the river and city. On one of the days I saw a pod of dolphins playing in the Swan River which was lovely! We had a lovely night out down at Lucky Shag and then we got on the ferry over the Swan to south Perth to go to Mister Walker in South Perth. There were lovely views of the city lit up. We had another night at Lucky Shag and then went to Tiger Lils.

I went out with the girl for a meal in Subiaco which was nice. It was good to catch up with not been at work. I met up with Maria a couple of times for a coffee and a walk. Me and Nath didn't really get up to too much as he was working a lot. I just got stuff sorted for leaving. Nath had a last night out with Cam and his brother. I went for a goodbye breakfast with the girls (Maria, Sam, Mel) in Scarborough which was lovely. On the Friday before we left me, Maria and Rosie went out a 'few' to an Irish bar. We were all hanging bad the next day but we had a funny night! Me and Maria had a little cry at the end! Certainly going to miss that girl! She will be going back home at some point though so sure we will catch up. It's been nice to have an actual friend. I have met loads of lovely people since we left but never really connected and made such a good friend.

We thought we would get to do stuff in our last week, Nath's work was suppose to quieten down after Jan but it only got busier. He ended up working 6 days in the last week, we went to Hillarys on the Monday and then he worked up until Sunday. We left Monday night, flying at 11.40pm with JetStar. We scrapped the car on Monday for $100. We thought it was pointless trying to sell it as we de-registered the car as it was registered in Vic still. We did around 25,000 km in the car! Not bad for 16 months. We did drive the width of Australia!

We were very up and down with leaving Perth. If we had the opportunity we certainly would have stayed for another year or two, but it wasn't meant to be. Some days we felt ready to leave as we were excited about the next adventure but other days we freaked out at the thought of leaving Perth forever. It made it a bit easier for me to leave that I had been work for 9-10 weeks on my own. Some days I could not really speak to a single person and it can get lonely! So I was excited to not be on my own anymore and Nath was ready to stop working by the end.

Nothing will ever compare to Perth and how much we have loved it. It's an amazing place. We both were very lucky with our jobs and enjoyed them. We had an amazing apartment and the first time really living on our own. We had a car to get around wherever we wanted which made a huge difference. And we met some brilliant people. We had a perfect balance. It wasn't going out every weekend with other travellers. We met Aussies or people settled here and just lived a normal life. I think that's why we wanted to stay so much, we were just so settled and happy. The weather makes such a difference too. You don't realise until you live in a warm place how much the weather affects your mood. It makes you feel much happier. You never have to worry about the weather really and what to do, you can just head out and do anything. Perth does get cooler and has seasons but it has pure sunny days, averaging eight hours of sun each day throughout the year.

Western Aus cover a third of Australia and is mainly made up of Outback. It has over 12,500km of coastline so we were never short of a beach and they truly are some of the most amazing, clean, white sand, blue water beaches we have seen. If WA was a country in its own right it would be in the top 10 in the world- crazy! Just shows how big it is! We did well seeing what we did. It also means it has big things- Kings Park is the biggest city park in the world- even bigger than Central Park! It really is a unique place with such diversity! If you don't mind the isolation from the next capital city then it's the place to be! We will never forget it and it will stay with us forever. We can't wait to visit again in years to come and see how much it has changed and grown! For now Perth..goodbye..we love you!